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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



020 775 652 



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Character Building in 

Our Schools 




The University of Wisconsin 

University Extension Division 



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Character Building in our Schools 



MR. F. J. GOULD, demonstrator for tlie Englisli 
Moral Education League, and the foremost liv- 
ing expert in the field of moral instruction in 
the elementary school, has arranged, upon the solici- 
tation of American friends, to spend the school year 
1913-1914 in this country. The desirability or even 
necessity of introducing moral instruction into the 
schools is now vs^idely recognized. Little, however, has 
actually been done, because the teachers feel them- 
selves unprepared for the work. To meet this need, 
Mr. Gould has agreed to place his services at the dis- 
posal of such communities as may desire them, in dem- 
onstrating to American elementary school teachers the 
methods of moral instruction which have been applied 
with great success in a large number of English cities. 
Mr. Gould will spend a week in each city to which he 
is invited. By means of a group of fifteen or twenty 
school children, brought together for the purpose, he 
will show the teachers, by actual demonstrations, how 
classes in this subject should be conducted. The chil- 
dren are placed on the stage with their backs to the 
audience, and are taught precisely as they would be 
in a school room. After the demonstration, Mr. Gould 
explains his methods to his auditors, states the princi- 
ples underlying them, and answers questions. The 
topics dealt with are such as duty to parents, self-con- 
trol, courtesy, kindness, truthfulness, honesty, obedi- 
ence to law, justice, and international peace. The 
method employed is, broadly speaking, that of story 
telling; but it includes a number of features which 
give it a very distinctive character. It is presented 
with a charm which makes it a delight even to those 
who are not teachers, and with a pedagogical skill 
that gives it value for any subject of instruction what- 
ever. 




Mr. F. J. Gould 



Mr. Gould's visit to a city will represent something 
more than a passing "flash in the pan." He has writ- 
ten a series of manuals of moral instruction which 
present in detail the material for an elementary school 
course. He has brought together several collections 
of stories for use in such classes. And he is the author 
of a work, Moral Instruction, its Theory and Practice, 
just published by Longmans, Green and Co. Accord- 
ingly the teacher, having once become acquainted with 
his methods and caught his spirit, will find herself 
supplied with abundant material and detailed sugges- 
tions in the way of methods for carrying on the work 
by herself with her class. Those who prefer to use 
some of the excellent manuals for the elementary 
schools prepared by American writers, will find Mr. 
Gould's demonstrations equally helpful, since he does 
not come to recommend any special scheme, but rather 
to show, in living and practical modes of teaching, 
how lessons should be constructed, and in what spirit 
they should be imparted. 

Mr. Gould has spent the greater part of his life as a 
teacher in the elementary schools. Since 1910 he has 
been demonstrator for the English Moral Education 
League. He has given model lessons in most of the 
cities and training schools in England, with the result 
that moral instruction has been introduced into the 
school systems of a large number of English cities. 
He made a brief visit to the United States in the sum- 
mer of 1911, and gave demonstrations before a small 
number of audiences interested in education. He has 
just returned from a two months' visit in India, 
whither he went at the invitation of the Bombay gov- 
ernment, and where he gave demonstrations in more 
than twenty Indian cities. 

He comes to this country under the auspices of the 
English Moral Education League, an organization com- 
posed of some of the most eminent men in educational 
and public life in Great Britain. Further information 
about the nature of his work, his itinerary, terms, etc., 
may be obtained by applying to the University Exten- 
sion Division of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. 



The following estimates of Mr. Gould's work may be 
of interest. 

"Mr. Gould is regarded as the best exponent in Eng- 
land of the direct method of moral instruction. He 
has a verj' interesting and winning style of teaching. 
He presents his matter in such a way as to produce ex- 
cellent results on the class he teaches; he has also the 
power of clearly expounding his principles so that 
teachers are able to make an intelligent application of 
them in their ordinary work. I have no doubt that 
he will find very great favour with the teachers of 
America." — John Adams, Professor of Education, Uni- 
versity of London. 

"Mr. Gould is a teacher of marvelous technical skill; 
and while he teaches morals in a most effective way, 
it is of great value to a teacher to witness his teaching, 
regardless of the subject, simply to get a high ideal of 
what skilful class room instruction ought to mean." — 
Thomas M. Balliet, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Peda- 
gogy, Xew York University. 

"To whom it may concern : — I heard a number of 
the demonstrations in morals given by Mr. F. J. Gould 
at Madison, ^Yisconsin, during the summer session of 
1911. I was much impressed by him, both as a teacher 
and as a man. I believe his demonstrations of how 
to give moral lessons would be of great value to Ameri- 
can teachers generalh', and I should be very glad if 
he could visit this country again and bring his work 
more widely into contact with cur public school teach- 
ers and officers." — Irving King, Professor of Education, 
University of Iowa. 

"Mr. Gould's method is, I think, on the whole the 
most constructive, systematic and well-wrought plan I 
know of teaching moral lessons to children of the 
grammar school grades. His central contribution is an 
exemplification of the possibility of making definite, 
progressive thinking interesting and impressive to chil- 
dren as young as ten to fourteen years." — Mrs. Ella 
Lyman Cabot, Member of the Massachusetts Board of 
Education. 



j-JBRARY OF CONGRESS 

020 775 652 



